Diversity and Inclusion: “It Has to Be on the Agenda”

It’s no secret that the commercial real estate industry has a long way to go before it truly reflects the diversity of America.

For
example, statistics from the 2013 Commercial Real Estate Diversity Report found
that white men, who are 31 percent of the total U.S. population, held the
majority of executive (77.6 percent), managerial (68.9 percent), professional
(58.5 percent) and technical (59.7 percent) jobs in the industry.

To address those lingering demographic disparities, a panel discussion during NAIOP’s Chapter Leadership & Legislative Retreat, held last week in Washington, D.C., highlighted notable efforts by three NAIOP chapters to promote inclusivity in the workplace.

A Woman on Every Panel

Cindy
McSherry, executive director of NAIOP Chicago, said that a short comment during
a monthly board meeting about including women on panels led to a simple
initiative that has generated real results.

McSherry
said she realized that the lack of women in the industry unintentionally caused
her to set up panels that were almost exclusively male.

“You
go to what’s easy when you’re putting together a program, and often you know
mostly men,” she said. “You have to be a little more thoughtful to bring in
women. People noticed that little teeny tiny step. This is a conversation
that’s not going to change overnight.”

NAIOP
Chicago also launched a scholarship program to boost diversity with an equally
simple decision —shifting proceeds from a chapter gala into commercial real
estate-related scholarships at DePaul University, Marquette University and
Roosevelt University. (The latter has a strong program for people of color.)

McSherry
said messages promoting diversity such as those showcased in the video are
powerful, but she stressed that the topic must come up more than once or twice
a year. She urged NAIOP chapters to create a position on their boards focused
on diversity and inclusion.

“You
have to have this conversation at every single monthly board meeting,” she
said. “It may not solve every issue, but it has to be on the agenda. That makes
a difference.”

CRE Summer Camp

Expanding
the pipeline of talent into the commercial real estate industry has long been a
concern, said Debbie Koenig, executive director of NAIOP Georgia, and it’s
important to reach potential employees when they’re young. But that hasn’t
always been easy.

“Not
many people in high school go, ‘I want to be a broker,’ unless it’s part of
their family,” she said.

To
address the pipeline problem, NAIOP Georgia launched a groundbreaking program
in 2017: a two-week summer camp for high school students that’s focused exclusively
on the commercial real estate industry. CRE Experience, which was held at
Georgia State University in Atlanta, was developed by NAIOP Georgia and the
university in partnership with Nexus Programs and the Real Estate Executive
Council.

“We’re
talking about young people who come in and think they want to be lawyers or
other things,” said Koenig. “But we bring them to Georgia State to immerse them
in commercial real estate. You have to make it applicable to the students. It
also has to be interesting for the parents. You won’t get many parents who will
let kids go to CRE camp unless there’s a scholarship or SAT prep available.”

Twenty-seven teens from six states participated in the program, “which included an SAT prep course, advanced software skills development, self-discovery exercises and presentations by a variety of guest speakers,” according to an article from the Summer 2018 issue of Development magazine.

Koenig
said when camp graduation rolled around, many students were visibly excited
about opportunities in the industry.

“They’d
come up to me and say, ‘I can be an international lawyer in commercial real
estate!’ There were students who absolutely changed their major because of this
camp,” she said.

Koenig
added that it might take a while before NAIOP Georgia knows how many students go
into commercial real estate because of the camp. However, she thinks seeds have
definitely been planted in the minds of many young people who took part in the
program.

“If
they go into a career fair and they recognize your company logo at your table,
it eases the path and makes connections,” she said.

Georgia State was so impressed with the camp that it moved it to the honors campus for the second year in 2018. NAIOP Georgia was more prepared the second time, too; the chapter had a task force working on the camp six to eight months ahead of time.

That
readiness requires a lot of work, though — along with a lot of outreach.

“This
is the most volunteer-intensive thing your chapter can do,” she said. “It takes
a lot of time and a lot of planning ahead. Be prepared for changes when working
with different entities and be prepared to be flexible. Don’t wait to get
started. Get a tight corps of people willing to get started. Reach out to local
commercial real estate legends in your area.”

Young Weekend Warriors

Finally, SECO Development, Inc. Senior Vice President of Planning and Development Rocale Timmons, membership chair of NAIOP Washington State, described her chapter’s success with a condensed CRE camp. In November 2017, the chapter brought together 20 teens for its first weekend immersive experience, which was held in collaboration with the University of Washington.

“The program’s hands-on experience provided a brief introduction to careers in the built environment, with a focus on negotiations between brokers and sellers, architecture and mixed-use development,” according to Development magazine.

“We know teens have short attention spans,” Timmons
said, making the shorter program perfect for young minds. “Getting them exposed
to different places in the industry that they can intersect was extremely
valuable.”

So
what made the program successful? Timmons said corporate sponsors like Amazon,
as well as contributions from lots of chapter volunteers, certainly helped. But
offering a program that generated interest for young people was far and away
the most important element.

“You
have to have something teenagers want to work on,” she said.

However,
Timmons said it’s an expensive program for an individual chapter to run.

“We
set aside $50,000 for this weekend,” she said. “It was certainly a worthwhile
investment, but it’s not as sustainable as we would wish. So we’re seeking
partners.”

The
weekend CRE camp also motivated NAIOP Washington State to add a standing diversity
and inclusion committee.

“We
decided it was necessary,” Timmons said. “We have dedicated at least one event
per year to diversity and inclusion. We’re also looking to draft a white paper
for best practices for diversity when it comes to hiring or diversity programs.”

As
a final note, she said it’s important to define “diversity” in a way that’s
most relevant for the local market served by a NAIOP chapter.

“We
have started to go down this path where we also created a task force of members
to figure out what diversity and inclusion means for our chapter,” she said.
“We’re diverse in terms of product types and gender, but not so much on the cultural
and race front. We needed to identify our blind spots. What could we do to uncover
those blind spots? There is a business case for diversity of thought. Make sure
everyone in your community is represented.”

About NAIOP

Since 1967, NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, has become the leading organization for developers, owners and investors of office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate. NAIOP comprises 18,000+ members and provides strong advocacy, education and business opportunities through a powerful North American network. Visit our website at www.naiop.org.